In the process of shipping one or more articles from one location to another, a packer typically places some type of dunnage material in a shipping container, such as a cardboard box, along with the article or articles to be shipped. The dunnage material partially or completely fills the empty space or void volume around the articles in the container. By filling the void volume, the dunnage prevents or minimizes movement of the articles that might lead to damage during the shipment process. Some commonly used dunnage materials are plastic foam peanuts, plastic bubble pack, air bags and converted paper dunnage material.
A supply of dunnage material can be provided to the packer in advance, or the dunnage material can be produced as it is needed. A dunnage conversion machine can be used to convert a supply of stock material, such as a roll or stack of paper, into a lower density dunnage product as it is needed by the packer. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,676,589 discloses a dunnage conversion machine that converts a continuous sheet of paper into a crumpled dunnage product.
The mechanism that feeds sheet stock material through a conversion machine can jam, causing the operator to stop the machine, open the machine's housing, physically reach into the machine to clear the stock material from where it is jamming the feed mechanism, close the machine's housing, and then go through a restart sequence before resuming dunnage conversion. Not only is this process time-consuming, but it also may lead to the production of a defective length of dunnage that must be discarded, increasing waste. Jamming is a more common occurrence with lower quality stock material. A jam condition occurs when the feed mechanism is unable to move stock material through the conversion machine, typically because the stock material has caught on something in its path, such as wrapping itself around a portion of the feed mechanism.